


The Thought in Belief

by Atzen_Mierge



Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Genre: Bendy just knows things, Exploration, Gen, Henry and Bendy are on the same wavelength, Henry is nice, Joey is a child, Only Henry, Poor Wally, Toon Logic?, a twisted child, and only him, but not in this, htf do I tag?, not really - Freeform, perhaps
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-27
Updated: 2018-12-27
Packaged: 2019-09-29 00:12:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17192831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Atzen_Mierge/pseuds/Atzen_Mierge
Summary: Enough belief, plus Henry's own running imagination, leads to a certain demon being formed.Or a take on how toons "come to life".





	The Thought in Belief

There was space and then there was not. He wasn't there and then there he was. The first sight to ever reach the toon's eyes was underneath a short structure, made of the same patterned stuff the made up the rest of the room.

 

The word 'wood' supplied his mind.

 

Glove by glove, the demon crawled out from the short structure- a desk.

 

There were many things on the desk, most of which being white things- paper. There were 'drawing's on the desk. They looked fairly similar to one another and featured only one figure on each sheet.

 

'Bendy', his mind supplied. 'Me'.

 

He was Bendy. He was a 'character' in a thing called a 'cartoon'.

 

The new being grew curious and began to inspect his own body- or at least what he could see of it. From what he could see and feel he had about the same shape as the character- him- on the pages. He quickly learned that he had no neck and could thus hold it in his hands as he got a better look at himself.

 

Yep, he was definitely himself.

 

The mystery being solved, Bendy found that there was an even greater mystery all around him: the 'studio'.

 

The little area already seemed huge to the small toon. He was already kinda struggling to see what was on the desk- realizing he could of hopped up onto the 'chair'.

 

The wood 'boards' of the studio rattled. He felt his insides clench. It wasn't a nice feeling, though he had an inkling of a feeling that he's felt this before. 'Fear' filtered through his head. He knew it wasn't entirely correct; moreover it felt like fear but to a lesser and fleeting degree- 'spooked'.

 

A low whistling noise could be heard gaining in volume and the boards shook again. It was just 'wind'. Yes, just wind.

 

His fear pacified, Bendy grew increasingly curious. That night was spent wandering about the space of the studio, avoiding the darker areas and sticking to the lit until he arrived back at the desk to sleep on the chair.

 

\---*---

 

It was the dawn of a new day and workers of Joey Drew Studios rolled into the parking lot. Some arrived earlier than others but most, if not all, arrived within the hour.

 

Henry was one of the earliest to arrive as he was the head animator. As he was stepping out from his car, another car came and parked a space away from him.

 

“Mornin' Wally!” Henry called as the other parked and got out of the car. The janitor grunted as he lightly slammed the door and lumbered over to walk in step with Henry to the studio's entrance.

 

“Hey, Henry.”

 

“Still not awake yet?”

 

Wally responded with a gravelly hum that ended in a sigh.

 

“I'll take that as a yes.”

 

A pause. “I don't see why I have to be at work all day, the most I do is sit around for hours waiting for a mess to turn up. Or pick up a pencil or _something_.”

 

The animator shrugged, “Hey, at least you're getting paid for those hours doing nothing. Sometimes it feels like the amount I get paid depends on how many frames I can crank out per day.”

 

Wally shook his head with a deep frown, “I swear, if Joey keeps fluctuating the pay, I'm outta here.”

 

Henry laughed, “Yea, you said it first.” He opened up the entrance door for Wally. “Try to keep yourself entertained!”

 

“I'll try!”

 

They both went their separate ways.

 

Henry passed Joey who was rifling through some papers in the lobby. They briefly said hello but it was one sided. Joey normally got too absorbed in what he was doing, which was fine.

 

There his desk sat at the end of the dead-end hallway; his little corner of the studio. As he came upon his desk, Henry saw something black sitting on his chair. His first thought was that someone had left something there and had accidentally left it, but as he drew closer the figure moved. The animator's brow creased.

 

Then, one white gloved hand after another, grasping the top of the chair, a toon's head shot up from the chair's back.

 

“What the?!” Henry, startled to a stop, stood there dumbfounded. The- the- _Bendy_ stared back at him in kind.

 

“Um.” Words left Henry. They blinked at one another. Bendy didn't know what to say either, this was his first time meeting a human- learning the word when he saw the first of many pass in front of the hallway.

 

The demon looked down when Henry tentatively took one step forward.

 

“Hey, are you... are you...- am I seeing this right?” Bendy looked back up.

 

He whistled quietly.

 

“Oh...,” the man's voice warbled, “Alright, alright. Huh.” Now he was somewhat more reassured. Bendy, however, was confused, showing so by tilting his head. Henry responded almost immediately: “No, I just didn't expect you... to be real.”

 

The demon stared back and then a look of realization dawned on him. He whistled twice.

 

Brows creased again, “I'm your _what_?”

 

Whistle.

 

“Yea, I heard you but-... what?!”

 

The demon took a pause, another epiphany hitting him. Another whistle.

 

“Belief?”

 

Bendy stood with a more pointed, strait posture, still holding onto the back of the chair.

 

Henry scratched behind his head, “I know cartoons aren't supposed to be _real_ -”

 

The toon bobbed his head forward.

 

“I mean, I entertained the thought but-” Once again the man was interrupted. The toon pointed at him as he hopped on his heels excitedly, whistles enthusiastic.

 

Henry was fairly surprised. “That's all it took, huh? Well I'll be...”

 

“You'll be doing your work now, I hope.”

 

Henry whipped around. “Oh, uh, hey Joey.”

 

“What are you doing? I thought I heard you talking to someone?” The boss folded his hands behind his back.

 

The head animator looked down at the chair, the demon still standing in place. “I was talking to him,” a shy smile formed on his lips as he waved to the toon.

 

Joey's head turned to look. His eyes searched around and up but he couldn't see anything. The man's wandering eyes made Henry's smile fade. Joey chuckled, “Henry,” he teased, “did you stay up all night working? I told you there's no need to do that.”

 

Henry's face dropped, “Yea, I know that but- you can't see him? He's right there!”

 

Concern bled into Joey's humored smile, “You ok, buddy? You seem to have a few screws loose.”

 

The animator looked back to the same spot he gestured to, but Joey grew perplexed as he noticed his eyes were fixed.

 

A whistle from Bendy was heard only to Henry's ears.

 

The man turned back quickly to Joey. “You have to believe in him. Bendy.”

 

Ok, now Joey was confused. His head whipped from his friend and co-worker to the chair and back a couple times, facing Henry again. “What?”

 

Henry breathed in. If he wanted Joey to see and understand, he would have to explain clearly. “Bendy is standing in that chair. The only reason why _I_ can see him is because I _believe_ in him. If you believe, you can see him.”

 

Joey's face twisted, “What are you tal-”

 

“Just,” Henry interrupted and took another breath, “try.”

 

The boss seemed a little bit skeptical, but if it meant that doing this soothed his friend, he would do it. He made sure to entertain the thought that Bendy could possibly be real, that he is real. That the toon devil being real was a fact.

 

Henry stood waiting on his concentrating friend. He looked to Bendy who whistled a reassurance. Henry nodded and the two looked back to the man as he awoke from his thinking.

 

Joey blinked but his gaze snapped to the toon on the chair. His face dropped in awe. Henry smiled and lifted his brows upwards, silently saying “I told you.”

 

In a whisper, an “Oh wow...” was heard. Bendy smiled back at him and whistled in greeting.

 

Joey pulled his attention away to ask, “What did he say?” before turning back to observe the toon.

 

“He said 'Hello'. You can't understand him?”

 

A distracted shake of the head from Joey. “No,” said in a low whisper.

 

Bendy looked to Henry and shrugged.

 

“Me neither.”

 

Joey patted his knees to pull himself out of his thoughts. “Alright. I suppose we'd need to 'imbue' some belief into some employees, eh?” The two didn't respond, thinking it a rhetorical question. Clearly, to Joey, it wasn't as he stood in silence. He nodded a little, “Let's get to it!”

 

The odd man promptly left. Henry and Bendy stared after him and then looked to each other. Bendy made a gesture in the direction Joey went and Henry could only shrug.

 

Their confusion was answered when Joey called out from around the corner: “Well?! You two got all day but some of the employees here don't usually stay!” With that the boss was gone again.

 

“Guess we should start going around introducing people,” Henry said to the little devil. Said devil whistled back in a knowledgeable tone.

 

“You already know them?”

 

Whistle.... whistle?

 

“So you know them, but you also _don't_ know them?” He clarified.

 

All the toon could come up with was a meek answer of _whistle_.

 

“A 'unique memory'? Huh. But we still need to meet them, otherwise how are they gonna meet you?” A warm grin spread on Henry's face and the demon smiled back.

 

 

…

 

Too bad not all people perceive a demon as a cute, innocent cartoon.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I got extremely inspired when I was reading Soul Music (by Terry Pratchett) and thought to write this. In the book it takes belief for something to come into being, and the perceptions of the believers warps the anthropomorphic outcome.
> 
> And it makes sense for this to happen: maybe tons of kids who watch Bendy want to believe that he could be real!
> 
> Hope you liked this little indulgence. Now I will be returning to my abandoned fic... (you'll know the one if you look).


End file.
